STATE POLICE RETURNING TO CITY

MATT BURGARD; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

The state police are coming back to Hartford, and the mayor, the state police commissioner and community activists couldn't be happier.

But the decision to assign 12 or more state police officers to various details across the city is being met with less enthusiasm from the Hartford police chief and city and state police union officials, who question the need and motivation for outside police assistance in the capital.

Police Chief Bruce P. Marquis said homicides and other major crimes are down from last year.

"We feel like we've got a pretty good lid on things now on our own," said Marquis, who nonetheless acknowledged that his undermanned department is in desperate need of extra bodies.

Starting next week, state police will assign at least five troopers, two sergeants and five plainclothes detectives to help enhance police visibility and take part in narcotics investigations in Hartford.

The state police assistance, which is expected to last six weeks, is similar to a joint law enforcement crackdown launched last year in response to a wave of drug-related gun violence in the city, including the shooting of a little girl in an exchange of gunfire between rival drug dealers.

This time, however, the city is in a relative period of calm despite a recent surge in shootings, and Marquis and union officials have questioned the wisdom and expense of bringing state police resources into the city.

In particular, city union officials have pointed to a clause in the police contract that requires the assignment of one city police officer for every state trooper assigned to a joint crackdown in the city. The contract also calls for the assigned city officer to be paid at an overtime rate, which could prove costly.

But Mayor Eddie A. Perez, who supports the latest plan, said the contract does not call for the assignments of city officers if the assisting state police personnel are non-uniformed officers not assigned to patrol functions.

That would mean that only the uniformed state troopers assigned to the crackdown, expected to number from six to eight, would require a matching city officer at overtime rates.

Under the current plan, according to state police and city sources, the six to eight plainclothes state police detectives will take part by helping undercover city narcotics detectives under the state police Reclaim Our Cities and Connecticut Youth, or ROCCY, program.

The ROCCY program uses state and federal money to help eliminate persistent crime problems in targeted neighborhoods. According to officials in the mayor's office, the police contract contains language that specifically excludes ROCCY programs from requiring the assignment of city officers at overtime rates.

Still, Sgt. Michael Wood, head of the city police union, has promised to fight any efforts by the city to get around the overtime clause. And state police union president Mark Wallack said he is concerned that valuable state police resources are being diverted to circumvent the contract for a fellow police union.

"We would hate to see anything being done to undermine the contract in Hartford," he said.

The idea of bringing state police into Hartford under the ROCCY program was broached in July, when state police Commissioner Arthur Spada toured the city's North End and suggested that the program might work well there.

"We've done this before in other cities, and we're happy to do it in Hartford," Spada said Friday.

Spada had been invited to tour the neighborhood by the Rev. Cornell Lewis, a community activist who has held numerous rallies and other events to call attention to the drugs and guns plaguing the area.

Lewis said he is grateful that Spada offered the state police assistance, pointing out that last year's joint crackdown was successful in reducing gunplay and blatant drug dealing on North End streets.

"Considering the manpower shortage faced by the city police department, the assistance from state police is welcome indeed," Lewis said.

Marquis echoed those comments, saying his force of 380 officers is overworked and underpaid. But he cautioned that the best solution to the problem is hiring more city officers, not relying on outside agencies.

Marquis said the city needs to offer better salaries to attract quality candidates to the force, which has been beset in recent years with corruption scandals and divisions between white, black and Hispanic officers. A class of 15 recruits is now being trained, but that won't come close to offsetting an anticipated wave of retirements, possibly as many as 80, over the next four months, the chief said.

Perez said the plan to bring state police back to the city has been consistently supported by all key city officials, including Marquis. He said the city is too cash-strapped at the moment to substantially increase salaries or staffing, which is why he said he supports the state police assistance.

"We can always use whatever resources are available to us, especially when it comes to public safety," he said.